Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.

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Venezuelan Infrastructure Suffers From Fourteen Years of Chavismo

August 19, 2012

Caracas has three main highways that take you out to the rest of the country. For a few hours this weekend, only one of them was available, the Autopista Regional del Centro. The other two, the Autopista de Oriente and the Caracas-La Guaira highway were closed for different reasons, making life difficult for those wishing or needing to travel.

The Autopista de Oriente was closed because the bridge at Cupira, about 130 Kms. East of Caracas, collapsed last week, as you can see in the picture above. The School of Engineers of Puerto La Cruz had been warning since 2009 that the bridge was in bad shape, but the warnings, much like those of the viaduct in the Caracas La Guaira highway a few years ago, were ignored by the Chavista Government. On top of that, you can see in the picture the large truck crane sitting in the middle of the bridge. There are reports that this truck crane, leased by the Government, weights almost twice as much as Venezuelan laws allow for a vehicle. Nobody stopped it and it was not complying with the regulations for a large vehicle circulating in a highway. This may have contributed to the collapse of the 40 year old bridge.

The consequences are felt everywhere. This is vacation season and an estimated 30,000 people scheduled to return from Margarita island by Ferry in the next couple of weeks will have troubles doing so, unless they take a 4 to 5 hour detour. Add commerce and supplies to the East and you can see that the picture is not pretty. The first day of the collapse the Government said it would have an alternate route ready in three days, but word now is that it will take around 15 days for the alternate route to be ready.

Meanwhile, the Caracas la Guaira highway was shut down yesterday for 14 hours (it was less than that in the end) so that the steel beam of the bridge of a new distributor in the Caracas La Guaira highway could be put in place. This was obviously needed, the information was unclear. At the beginning of the week, I thought it would affect me and I would have to sleep at a Hotel near the coast, as I had an afternoon flight out. But the hours were changed magically and it did not affect me, but it did many others departing and arriving from Maiquetia airport. You only had two alternatives, either sleep at a hotel down by the Coast, or take the old Carretera Vieja, which is extreme adventure tourism because of its decaying state, as well as the possibility of being mugged. You can see the new steel beam below:

But the more interesting thing is why this distributor is being built. The Distributor leads to Ciudad Caribia, a supposedly “socialist” city invented by Chavez on one of his Alo Presidentes. People are given the apartments, but they don’t own them. But the worst part is that thousands of apartments have been built but transportation to and from that new city is terrible. The plan is to have over 100,000 people live there by the year 2018. The problem is that the Caracas La Guaira highway is already overloaded and there are no plans for an alternate route to the 59 year old highway. (I know exactly how long it has been around, my mother always told us about going to see the highway the day it was opened, despite the fact that she was nine months pregnant and gave birth to my sister the next day)

But this is typical of the improvisation of Chavismo. Ciudad Caribia was rushed, without having proper infrastructure for it. People are very critical of it and construction quality has been bad, with building walls falling down months after the construction has been completed. This is not unique to Ciudad Caribia. All over the country buildings are rising, without any additional infrastructure being built. In order to rush the housing units to completion, all ordinances are bypassed, there is no planning and the result is that the quality of life is simply lowered for everyone. I guess that is what they mean by socialism.

Chavez no longer has the excuse of blaming the previous Government. Venezuelan democracy was reinstated in 1958 and Chavez has governed for 26% of those years. Moreover, he has had immense resources but has little to show in terms of infrastructure. In fact, even housing is a late project by Chavez, conceived last year as a way of buying votes ahead of the upcoming election. Chavez track record in housing is so dismal, that he has yet to better the average of the Caldera years in any given year, despite the fact that oil was in the low teens when Caldera was President.

But his track record in maintenance is even worse. Electric projects, highways and bridges have been neglected. Prior to Chavez there would be maintenance, even if few significant infrastructure projects were built. But those in charge of maintaining the infrastructure were slowly replaced by loyalists, many military officers. Venezuelan infrastructure has suffered fourteen years of neglect under Chavismo.

You would think that this would impact the upcoming Presidential vote. The excuse of the previous Government is no longer valid. After 14 years, Chavez really has little to show, so he resorts to selling ideology rather than facts in his campaign. Hopefully for Venezuelans, it will not work this time.

A bridge with problems after 40 years taking in account river overflow, no maintenance, more and heavier traffic, etc. is not so strange and couldn’t be foreseen when the bridge was designed 40-45 years ago!

All over western Europe bridges are inspected, re- calculated and observed, if necessary they are replaced, re-strengthened or repaired. Bridges build and calculated 40-50 years ago where never calculated and build for the present loads and traffic intensity.

Problem in Venezuela is that even when the Ministry know all about the condition of bridges and the weak “spots” in the national network of roads, no real action is taken. There is no interest to spend money now to save money and, moe important, disasters in the future. When action is taken to make repairs, the price is too high, money is paid to some other parties and the repair is, despite the high price, done in such a way that it don’t make any sense. La Cabrera in Carabobo is a typical example of this. Large sums are spend for some inferior repairs. Too many pockets to fill!

As long as a majority except this, it will continue. Next generation will have to pay for it, not only infra structure but also refineries, platforms in the lake of Maracaibo, etc.

Interesting case for a civil engineer. Most of the cases where bridges are collapsing, a combination of factors are responsible. It seems also here being the case:1. possible damage because of the high water levels during the rain periods, interesting to see this on Google Earth. 2. No regular inspection after the rain period to check foundations, columns, sub grade, etc. 3. No maintenance during long period. 4. Overload like this extreme heavy crane. No surprise that it went wrong at the moment the crane passed the bridge! Knowing the situation in Venezuela for the last 18 years and especially the infrastructure it is still a miracle that so far not more happens and that human lives are not involved in the recent collapse.

Clear is that, despite warnings regarding the infrastructure from engineers in Venezuela, the present government is not interested at all to maintain, to inspect and to repair. Maybe to transfer that, like the airports and harbors, to the Cuban “friends” too? Sad that people still don’t realize what is going on and how “their” money is wasted. 14 years Mr. Hugo will be an expensive lesson in the near future!

“Sad that people still don’t realize what is going on and how “their” money is wasted. 14 years Mr. Hugo will be an expensive lesson in the near future!”
This is exactly what has puzzled me for years, why can’t people see and understand this?
I don’t believe this has happened anywhere in the world on such a large scale and without people being aware of it?

To some extent, Cupira is going through really really historical moments: back in the times of Juan de Urpín (early XVII century) the Tomuza Indians and the Spanish settlers were better connected: at least they had those canoes and boats to go from one side to the other. Now, in 2012, we are stuck with rusty 1970 GMs and 2012 Grand Cherokees that cannot go either way, even if we have petrol for free.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all – the apathy of human beings.

Helen Keller

From what I have observed over my lifetime, one of the principle causes of apathy is the inability to project an image into the future and see the consequences of certain behaviors, or actions.Society could help this along by making sure that people pay a price for their wrongdoings .In Venezuela people get away with the most shameless things.

On the application “Google Earth” there is an interesting satellite photo of the Cupira bridge dated back to 3/19/2004, where you can see by that time that the river totally invaded the western pillar and the brigde structure practically rests over a meander in the eastern margin, created by the river sediments.
By the way, as you can see in the picture above posted by the Devil, the crane truck was aproaching the same western pillar when the brigde collapsed.
Check the “Google Earth” picture by entering in the look up window: “Venezuela, Miranda, Cupira” and zoom to an elevation of 400 meters. If you have the grid option “ON” you may look for the following coordinates: 10°09’53.83″ N 65°42’00.46″ W

Exactamente. Apparently, the only activity that the regime executes with swiss efficiency is collecting taxes. They should have opened a SENIAT division for infrastructure maintenance. Too late now, though.Their time is up.

Canuck, I disagree that the crane was the cause. The cause is that no structure on earth can stand the test of time without proper maintenance, and even then some structures are not meant to last that long.

This shitty bridge is an obvious example, and it’s not that’s located in a lost road in the middle of nowhere. It’s a major road with lost of traffic, cargo and particular vehicles.

This could have been forseen and prevented, and if it was determined that the bridge was no good anymore, build a new one before it collapses.

You and Carolina are both correct. The overweight load of the crane crossing the bridge was the “proximate cause”, overloading the bridge’s current degraded capacity. The excess load caused the top stringers of the truss to buckle first, destroying the entire structural integrity of the bridge.

However, the “ultimate cause” was the incompetence of the government in failing to maintain maximum loading information for bridges and to enforce a system of transit permits for over-size and over weight loads in which a routing investigation is done to insure that the bridges along the proposed route can handle the load, overhead clearance is adequate, and safety measures are taken to protect the public.

If you look at the photo above you will see a couple of cars & a transport truck with some cabillas (not many) on the bridge.
There has not been one word about the crane from the government. It’s like it doesn’t exist. If it doesn’t exist it’s not our problem.

The other point that Miguel mentioned was the central route to get to PLC & the ferry. We had a client arrive on Friday & it took him 15 hours in a 4×4. He told me that the road is an utter disaster full of huge holes. Photos on the web confirm this.

The neglect of this government is legendary but now the 14 years of incompetence is coming to haunt them in a “perfect storm” of events.

The roads, the housing, the lack of essentials, the lack of cement, the collapse of many hospitals and, of course, the electricity which after 2 years of millions & millions of dollars in band aids is at a point of complete collapse.

Chavez has no chance of winning this election. It will be a comfortable win for Capriles. Now we just have to protect the votes.

Unfortunately a victory of Capriles wouldn’t mean the end of Chavizmo. It would be a significant victory, but it could easily turn phyrric. They’re bleeding the country dry and should Caprilles win will certainly claim the upcoming economic trouble is his fault that wouldn’t happen under Chavez. A recall referendum is a dangerous option, especially since they would still hold the courts and have a majority in legislative. Granted, they would loose a major asset, but could still successfully sabotage the country. I wouldn’t put it past them, not by a long shot.